The Silver-Tailed Fox
by Nanozom
Summary: In the island nations of Sol de Reign, the war between the Dragonkin and the Mainland has resulted in a new hybrid facility in the island paradise, called "White Lotus", to fight the war on the continent. Among these lands, in the island nation of Kakusareta ha, a victim of the war decides to crawl out from the dirt and bite back. To survive. And make the world pay in blood.


**Author´s note: **This, believe it or not, started as a request for a Naruto/Claymore crossover that I received the other day. I thought about it and wondered how I would make this work. After heavy consideration, I decided to give it a try with my full attention.

That means however that I will make some things differently. This story is in the Claymore setting of my other story "The Silver Eyed Angel" as it takes place on a continent I created in the claymore setting.

Most of the cast from Naruto will appear as this universe´s equivalents to the other ones from the Naruto universe but with some changes. The names, appearances and personalities will be the same but these au versions of them doesn´t use chakra and are bound by the rules of the claymore universe. These versions are born to this world and not inserted from the Naruto universe. Let´s see if you can spot them as the story goes as I won´t aim a headlight to show who is who.

Just to make things clear here.

Also, I will use names from locations in the Naruto universe but alter them to fit this setting.

This is a different kind of crossover that I name an Original Universe Crossover" and I will introduce oc characters in this and how the hybrid program would look if it didn´t took place in a European country like the Island is.

With all this said, I hope you will enjoy this prologue and depending on the reviews, they will decide how fast this is updated.

Enjoy.

:)

* * *

**The Silver-Tailed Fox**

**Prologue**

* * *

**Excerpt from "The History of Grande Armé"**

**Upon the discovery of the Drach in the lands of Lune de Reign, the Grande Armé alliance, in a fit of desperation, came to the conclusion that a countermeasure was necessary to combat the threat of the Dragon-like Drach. The rumors of the location for the development of these experiments of an unknown island have lead the Dragonreich to engage in a war with th Armé controlled island nations called Sol de Reign, or Sun Kingdom as it went by before the Grande Armé claimed it for their own.**

**Due to the constant threat and attacks, Grande Armé could not spare troops from the Grande War. Instead a different solution presented itself.**

**The Monarchy of Grande Armé decided to put the Sol de Reign´s people and colonies to good use.**

**Among the countless islands, a second facility was built and the hybridization program invoked.**

**Centuries after its foundation, it has become accepted as reality for the people as they tried to survive their daily lives on the thousands of islands.**

* * *

The scream pierced trough the tropical summer morning of Sol de Reign.

"Murder! Murder!" a drunk, unshaven man yelled as he stumbled back out on the main street, pale as a golden sheet.

The people that woke up in the early morning opened the windows to their townhouses with confusion. Some that woke up early to set up shop for the potential travelers and visitors moved out to see the source of the commotion. The filth covered man pointed in horror at the dark corners of the alley and gasped as if he was a fish on dry land.

In the middle of the sudden confusion, a twelve-year old boy peeked out around the corner of one of the back streets. Dirty dark hair, epicanthic narrow eyes, pale golden skin and dressed in a dark pair of pants and a ragged shirt. He glanced at the crowd and back to the open shop with its fruit and contents on display. He waited as the crowd gathered around the panicked man before his fast fingers snatched a piece of bread, followed by several fruits.

In the crowd, one of them tried to help the horrified man up.

"What do you think you are doing?" One of the shopkeepers walked up and glanced inside the alley. His eyes opened wide and with a hand over his mouth, he ran out in terror.

"It´s a… It´s a…" The filthy man replied while he forced himself to stay conscious.

Among the townsfolk, the murmurs carried their thoughts in the open through whispers.

"Another one…"

"Who is going to clean this up?"

"I´ll go and get a blanket…"

While they murmured, the boy reached for a piece of fish, confident over his catch of the day.

"OY!" A man shouted and the boy´s eyes stared wide. "What do you think you are doing?!"

He turned his head and the shopkeeper run for him, infuriated and hands clenched to fists. The boy made a run for it with his arms full of stolen fruit.

"_Komono_! Stop that thief!"

The pursuit continued in one of the narrow alleys away from the crowd as two city guards in their white garbs and _jittes, _wooden batons, in their hands. He ran for it with an apple in his mouth while the men behind caught up.

"You insolent brat!"

The guard reached out to grab the kid´s neck.

The boy dodged forward, dropped half of the apples in his arms and the first guard tripped over them. He ran while he continuously chewed down the apple. The second man picked up speed and tried to snatch him once more. They passed under a wooden gate and he turned quickly among the houses to get away. He glanced back. The _komono_ still followed him. He cursed in his food as he took another bite of the green apple.

He turned left. The apple fell out from the boy´s mouth as he shouted. "Now! _Onee-chan!"_

A shadow swiped down from above and kicked the second guard in the chest. The man flew back and a woman in her late teens and dirty blonde hair picked the boy up.

"Stop dragging your feet, Kitsune!" She berated him as she ran as if he was a bag of laundry under her arm. "…And you dropped almost half of the food!" He glared back at her.

"You are the slowpoke here _onee-chan!_ If you come sooner…"

A whistle pierced through the air followed by angry noises. The two siblings glanced back and noticed how the _Komono_ gathered up to pursue them in greater numbers. The sister cursed.

"_Kuso!_ I told you! We should have waited! They gather up the moment another _youma_ victim shows up!"

"I couldn´t pass up the chance!" Kitsune replied. "There was no better distraction! And we both are hungry!"

"I know!" She glanced back over the shoulder. "We have no choice… Time for plan B!"

She turned to the left and they ended up in a dead end. Kitsune frowned as he glanced back up to her.

"What are you doing!?"

"Getting rid of evidence!" She replied and with a strong throw, threw him over the two and a half meter tall wall. He landed in a pile of trash and shouted back to her.

"Jump over!"

"They are only after you! Just make a run for it and we will meet later! Do you still remember the way to the safe house?!"

"Like the back of my hand! But you better be there!"

"Go!" she shouted and moments after the angry sounds of men´s accusing shouts caught up with her. "What? I haven´t seen any boy. You look pretty dizzy, maybe too much sake?" She shouted angrily as the men shouted back incomprehensibly. "You can´t arrest me! Let go you _deki sokona!_"

Kitsune punched the wall once and muttered as he ran back out. "Don´t be an idiot, _Onee-chan_…"

He ran alone in the darkened alleys and tried to find a way out as he secured his prize. Two loaf of bread, three apples and a slice of cheese. Not enough for one day or two people but it would be enough until the town sprung to life for the foreign travelers from the other nations of Sol de Reign. Travelers with pockets and purses to pick and change owners without them noticing it. A good distraction and means to purchase what they needed.

Kitsune scowled as the stench of the corpse grew stronger.

"What the?" He said and rounded the corner.

He froze on the spot as five guards stood next to a body between two wooden walls and among leaves and torn paper. Its insides gone, torn open as if on the mercy of a refined beast with blood splattered across the wall and ground. The horrified, stiff face of the corpse screamed in silence. The humid air spread the stench of decaying flesh and soured the area around it.

Kitsune recognized the guard´s armbands as the _Dôshin, _higher ranked officials in charge for murder investigations. One of them arrested a girl in her early teens, with warden charms attached to her forehead and feebly protested against them. The trace of charms that decorated the crime scene gave away her involvement in this.

They glanced back up at him.

"Halt! What do you know about this?!"

He made a run for it. One of the guardsmen tackled him to the ground and he fought back as the man bound his hands.

"You are under arrest!"

Kitsune cursed.

"_Kuuuuusoooo_…"

* * *

"The back of your hand, huh?…" His sister mumbled as they both sat on a bench in the court hall. They waited in line with other criminals and lawbreakers that awaited punishment for various crimes. Kitsune scowled as he glanced at the guards that kept a close eye on them, he glanced to the right. A tanned man with dark hair mumbled in a language his ears never bothered to understand.

"_Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto?"_

"Go home, foreigner…" Kitsune mumbled and got pinched by his sister. "What was that about?"

"Even if you hate them, they are still a part of our countrymen… And think! Don´t speak up what´s on your mind all the time…"

Kitsune glanced back to the rest in the line.

A brute of a man with hardened muscles and bald head, dressed in leather armor and hands chained in iron.

Next to him, the girl from earlier, mumbled incomprehensibly while she nervously glanced around with several warding charms attached to her head. She nervously twirled her dark hair and wrote symbols in blood with a wound and her fingernails. A symbol for protection in dark crimson, she nervously offered the finished note to the large brute next to her with tiny hands.

The stern man glanced down at her and without a word accepted it. He slowly put it on over his chest while the girl continued to write charms in feverish vigor.

_Superstitious crap like warden charms ever worked before._

To her right side, another young man with a bruised up face and sleep-deprived eyes as if he spent the night in a bar.

Kitsune glanced back to the right and next to his sister sat another foreigner as he could see. A pale man with bright blonde hair and blue eyes, calm and collected as he asked the guards in a language that sounded like a choppy and awkward translation from Grande Armé´s mainland language.

"When time comes leaving?" He asked and got a frown back in response from the guards.

Kitsune rolled with his eyes and glanced up to his right, up to his older sister.

"You threw me over the wall, I got lost…" He feebly mumbled.

"Excuses. We are trying to survive here, remember." She said and sighed heavily. "At least they can´t charge us for anything…"

"They confiscated the food…" Kitsune lamented.

"At least they didn´t search us… And I didn´t gave the guards too much of a headache so we might just get a warning this time."

"Won´t fill our stomachs though…" Kitsune lamented.

His sister glanced back at him with her dark eyes and nodded reluctantly. "That´s true… but we can always try to beg again…"

"I hate it…" Kitsune replied. "…If it wasn´t for the youma then we would have got away with this…"

"You can´t blame it for everything… It wasn´t a youma that turned us to beggars."

"If it wasn´t for it, we wouldn´t be sitting here with a bunch of idiots…" The muscular man glanced down at him in disapproval and Kitsune glanced back up at him. "Yes. I said _idiots. _What are you looking at?"

The man grunted and turned his head away while Kitsune glanced back down at the ground and muttered.

"It still wasn´t the youma that did this to us… It was the Drache, remember?"

Kitsune scowled. "Don´t remind me…"

"At least we have each other… that must count for something." His sister smiled and glanced down to him. "Come on… show me a smile now. Little nine."

"If I am one then you are too, since we share the same surname…" Kitsune threw back and smiled. Another five minutes passed by and Kitsune gazed down at the floor. "We are going to get a finger cut off for this, aren´t we?" he asked his sister.

"Maybe… you perhaps… I just beat up a couple of these idiots…" She mumbled and glanced over to one of the guards with a black eye. "If they think they can touch me without permission then they had it coming."

"What is taking them so long?" Kitsune wondered as he glanced back to the large fold door in the end of the hall. "We are starving here!"

"Silence, _hinin_…" One of the _komono _hissed. "The village headman is in a meeting and will deliver judgment for your lot once it´s done."

"Tell him to hurry up! We are starving here and better things to do than listen to his bulls-"

Kitsune´s sister immediately put one hand over his mouth and he grunted in protest.

"Ignore him, he is just an idiot."

"With a mouth like that, I will be surprised if he still has his tongue after this…" The guard remarked. The sister appealed to him with the hand over Kitsune´s mouth. "But you have to admit that it been hours since we been dragged here without food or water. And since this is the court hall, I guess you want us gone as soon as possible…"

"You got that right…"

"So at least give us a reason to why we are forced to sit here for this long?"

The guard with the black eye glanced back at the main door and around cautiously.

"Will you keep that insolent brat quiet if I tell you?"

"Sure thing." The sister smiled falsely.

The guard sighed. "The village headman is in a meeting with a representative of the White Lotus."

The people on the bench stiffened with the exception of Kitsune who frowned back at him. The sister nodded. "Is this about the youma problem?"

"Of course it is… that demon scares away the merchants and travelers… bad for business. We have gathered the fee to have one of those _Nôdachi _summoned here. In this moment…" He pointed at the doors. "…they are discussing the details about the request. Is that enough of an answer?"

She nodded and the guard returned to watch them without a word. Kitsune opened his mouth as she lowered her hand.

"White Lotus? _The_ White Lotus?"

"It seems that way…"

"And a _Nôdachi_?! For real?!"

"Why else would they gather money to kill the youma? Don't worry…"

"Pardon me…" The hacked up translation interrupted the two siblings and the mainland man politely glanced at them. "…But what is one _Zanbato?_"

She turned back at him with a scowl. "If you want to know, foreigner, then it´s going to cost you…" She rubbed her thumb and index finger together to make her point go across. The blonde man nodded and picked up two silver coins with rifled edges.

"Is this right price?"

"It will do…" She said and snatched the silver coins out of his hand. "Fine, I don´t know how much of the language you know, but I will keep it simple…" She cleared her throat. "A _Nôdachi_ is our official name for those silver-eyed ronins that the White Lotus offers people to deal with the youma problem…"

"Wait… please no fast!" The man panicked. "Language no good for me!"

"Can anyone translate for this idiot!?" She turned back to the rest of the line and the nervous woman raised her hand.

"I can…" She feebly replied.

"Good. Now translate me, word for word and don´t mess this up."

A scared nod in response and the woman spoke in a second language that Kitsune found as gibberish.

"_Isour un nom officielle Zanbato pour…"_

The man nodded as Tsukune´s sister continued her explanation.

"White Lotus has been around for centuries, they are like a charity that sends their ronins and people around between the nations to support them whenever a youma or to defend in the war against the _Ryûto_ from the Moon Kingdom in the north. Those people are half-youma themselves and needs to be to even stand a chance against these demons. They are despicable and capable of witchcraft that you never seen the likes of… I heard they operate in teams and wear bells to announce or warn others for their presence… I ain´t too certain of that. But since they aren´t human, people usually want them to be gone since anytime one of these silver-eyed warriors stay, there will be misfortune. They are called _Nôdachi _for the huge katanas they wield. If you see someone with a huge sword and no sheath for it, then you are looking at one those people. They are also the only ones that can find the _youma_, shapeshifting demons who possess the bodies of the dead to disguise themselves flawlessly. They are really dangerous since if you are attacked by one you have either one of two things to look forward to. Either die a horrible death as it eats your guts, fresh out of your body. Or survive the attack but slowly become one yourself from whatever injury you get from it. They are _monsters_! And the same goes for those silver ronin…Those are even worse than us _hinin!_"

Kitsune listened but turned his head at the large doors which opened. His sister silenced and the arrested _hinin_ followed suit as most of them wanted a glance on the reason for this delay.

A tall, lean man in his mid-thirties stepped out with white spikey hair and a grey facemask concealed the lower half of his face. He wore a white long robe with chin-height collar, blue interior and the dark outlines of several white lotus flowers. A bone-white eyepatch covered his right eye.

Kitsune frowned as he noticed how the man held up a book with one hand and read it in mid-conversation and dull gaze.

Without a glance to the sweaty elderly man who seemed to have gone through hell the last hours.

"You have to understand that this is a considerable sum at stake here!" The Village headman argued. "We can´t just give it away before the deed has been done!"

"It´s a matter of assurance…" The man in dully replied as he turned page in the book. "Besides, we can´t trust you either to pay your share once the deed is done either."

"Everything is there! You checked it yourself! Coin by coin!"

"White Lotus doesn´t take any risks when it comes to this, if the payment isn´t enough once the job is done, and then there will be consequences…"He turned another page and his gaze opened slightly wider before it turned dull. "I only spared you the trouble."

"So do we have an agreement on this sensitive matter?" The village headman pleaded.

They passed by the lines of guards that saluted the headman, he ignored them as the sweat dripped down along his head.

The white dressed man sighed. "Since the gold adds up, I don´t see any problem with it. Your request has been granted."

A heavy exhale of relief left the older man as put a hand over his chest. "Thank the divine…" He quickly narrowed his gaze. "How long will it be until your Nôdachi arrives?"

"It´s already here…" The white dressed man replied as he turned page. "In fifteen minutes, this little inconvenience will be over and done with."

"Thank heavens…"

They passed by the line of _hinin_ and Kitsune who stared up at the white robes. The men stopped and the white-dressed man gazed back at the people on the bench.

"Are these the suspicious people you mentioned earlier?" He asked.

"Indeed!" the Village headman nodded. "We gathered up any suspicious people who caught our eye. We are not sure yet, but the odds are high that the youma is among them."

Kitsune glanced back up at the one-eyed man as he dully glanced over the rows of accused. Another sigh left his lips as he raised the book back up.

"If you want them judged then bring them out. Gather all the townspeople in one spot within ten minutes… use these ones…" He swiped his finger out at the _hinin_. "…as an excuse. Call it a public execution."

"But… in the middle of a street?"

"There will be an execution anyway…the point is that people won´t shed many tears over it." The white-dressed man nonchalantly replied and left with a small bag full of gold in his other hand. He continued his book with faintly increased interest. "I will stay in sight, and not run off with the money or anything. At least not until the job is done."

"Sure…" The village headsman replied as he immediately narrowed his gaze on the accused on the bench. "Take them out! We will arrange a public execution."

Kitsune scowled as the guards pointed their lances at them and led them out.

* * *

In the middle of the town square, the entire population gathered around a pedestal in the center. The _henin_ stood like merchandize on a slave market, hands bound tightly with ropes and chains for the large bulky man. Kitsune glanced over the crowd´s faces in silence.

The faces of the people full with fear and despise as they stood over him. He glanced back up at his sister who gently assured him while she restrained herself.

"It will be fine… I just hope this won´t take too long…"

"They are idiots…" Kitsune muttered. "Look at them staring like dumb fish in a net."

"They can hear you."

"Good! Once the _Nôdachi _shows up and kills one of them then they can carry the shame!" His stomach growled. "Urgh…I am so hungry…"

"Well, we got money now, once we are out of here then we can buy something to eat."

In the line, they both noticed how the countryman cupped his bound hands together and prayed.

"_Madre de Dios, por favor proteger mi piel lo siento y…"_

"Shut up…" Tsukune mumbled and he quickly moved his hands as he tried to escape his restrains. "These ropes are too tight…"

"Don´t bother…" His sister replied and glanced up at the rooftops. Several archers waited with bows ready to fire. "We are _hinin_, and they will open fire if we mess this up…"

"This is wrong…" The battered man mumbled as he tried to shield himself from the sunlight. "Something´s wrong…" He turned his head up and asked. "Hey! Does anyone have any sake?" A unison of jeers followed and he immediately scowled in pain. "I was just asking! If I am going to die, then I want to die drunk!"

_I hate this town…_

Kitsune defiantly stared up at the crowd as they silenced and the village headman stepped up.

"Dear citizens, we all know the plague that tormented our town for the last couple of months…" He started.

"Youma!" Some of the crowd replied.

"That´s right… Today! Another one of its victims was found, and we have had enough! Today, the combined forces of our land lord´s assigned guards has searched through the city and found the people who the poor man been in contact with the night before his death and this morning…

_That explains it, these idiots here in the line was picked up from whatever rat-hole he visited last night._

"Also those who returned to the scene of the crime!"

_I just took the wrong turn for the love of…!_

"Yeah… Kill them!" One of the people in the crowd shouted. "Kill the filthy _hinin_! Kill them all to be sure!"

_Rot and die._

Kitsune scowled as he couldn´t see the one that shouted. _This whole town has gone bad ever since the foreigners took over_.

"We could kill them all." The village headman replied nonchalantly. "A _hinin_ wouldn´t be much of a match for our guardsmen and have no rights to call for their protection. But we won´t just execute them. If the _youma_ that terrorized our town is among these scums of society, then it will without any doubt butcher all of us and feast on our insides. No. I can´t let the people under my watchful eye die a dog´s death like that…"

"Then what is…?"

"That´s why!" He pointed at the white dressed man who stood leant up against the wall and read the book with dull interest. "…I made the choice to send for the one thing that can defeat this demon of the dead! Today, the executioner has arrived to deliver us from our plague! Don´t worry, as soon the dead is done, we will make sure that the youma won´t come back! We will kill the rest of the _hinin_ to assure that it won´t have a body to enter and escape hell´s judgment!"

_He is going to kill us!?_

Kitsune´s eyes widened and he hyperventilated slowly. _No… I will survive… I won´t die a dog´s death… I will survive… We must survive…_

He glanced back to his sister who calmly glanced back down to him. "Be ready…" His gaze moved down to her hands and she obscured a faint sawing motion with one of the silver coins. An effort she hid from the rest of the crowd discreetly. "…we will be fine. _Otôto_…I won´t leave you here… I promise that."

She immediately scowled in defiance, the rope that held her snapped apart. She gritted her teeth, and in a heartbeat pulled out a small dagger, hidden on the inside of her thigh. With one fast swipe, she cut the rope that connected Kitsune to the next in line. She grabbed him in her arms, turned on the spot and ran for the closest back alley.

"Watch out!" Kitsune shouted as the archers fired, some of the arrows aimed for him.

She grunted and turned on the spot with eyes closed. Two soft thuds hit her in the back and she tripped over on the podium. People shouted, the girl with the charms screamed in horror.

Kitsune sat up and saw the shafts of two arrows protrude out from the left side of her back. Her breathing strained and she coughed blood.

"_Onee-chan!"_ He shouted and she let out a feeble pained grunt in response. Kitsune immediately shouted back at the archers. "YOU BASTARDS!"

The crowd murmured among themselves in a startled panic. Several cries got out.

"The _hinin_ tried to escape!"

"Kill them! They must be youma!"

"They all are youma!"

"Do something! Kill them!"

A bell rang and the crowd silenced instantly. Kitsune immediately gazed forward as the village headsman tried to regain composure as he announced.

"And fear not… the executioner has finally arrived…"

It was a warrior, equipped with a full set of samurai armor of grey leather and metal scales, strapped together through rivets and attached to dark grey leather backing. A pair of leather wristguards with a metal plate strapped over them. A faceplate covered the warriors face, devoid of any facial features and only contained a foreign rune that stretched from the bridge of the mask´s nose and down to the tip of the chin.

On the warrior´s back rested a one and a half meter long katana, wide as a hand and without a sheath. A _Nôdachi_ with a pair of bells at the end of the hilt_. _Two hooks held it up, attached to the warrior´s armor.

The long silver-grey hair swayed freely in the wind through holes in the helmet.

A pair of cold ice-silver colored eyes glowed from over the mask, relentless as they gazed forward.

"A real…_Nôdachi_" Kitsune whispered, struck with awe.

The silver eyes turned directly at him.

Kitsune felt a sharp pull in his spine and a cold haunt around him, as if his bones turned to snow. As if these eyes could pierce and wound his soul from their gaze. He trembled faintly and shunned away as the _Nôdachi_ stepped forward, slowly.

"It´s here…" one of the townspeople remarked.

"A silver-eyed ronin…"

"All that is divine, protect us…"

The one-eyed man glanced up from his book for a moment and sighed.

"All according to the schedule…" He mumbled and returned to his book.

Kitsune quickly glanced down to his injured sister who rested against the ground

"Who do you think is the youma?"

"The big brute, look at him, he hasn´t moved a muscle during all of this…"

"I think it´s the girl…"

"The brat… definitely the brat! He has been nothing but a pain in the ass for all of us!" The shopkeeper shouted and the crowd started to nod.

"He has a point…"

"How many times has he stolen from us?"

"Heard he murdered someone just for the kick of it…"

"No family, yet he still managed to survive for years?"

"Sounds suspicious if you ask me…"

"SHUT UP!" Kitsune shouted back with tears in his eyes as he kneeled down and held his sister's hand. "We are going to get them out…" He spoke to her as she struggled to stay awake. "…don´t die, please…_Onee-chan_…_please!_"

Her hand turned limp and her eyes remained half-open. Kitsune felt something inside his chest as he gasped for air, as if a merciless hand grabbed and slowly squeezed his heart.

"_Onee-chan?"_ He glanced back down at her, the dark stain of blood across her back grew faintly larger and stopped. The tears rolled over his cheeks. "You BASTARDS! You killed her! You murderers! She had nothing to do with this! We are just trying to SURVIVE!"

"Filthy _hinin_! You must be the youma!"

"GO TO HELL!" Kitsune shouted as he desperately held his sister´s hand as if his heat would bring her back to life. "All of you can just die…" His voice cracked and he reached for his sisters dagger. His knuckles paled as he gripped it. "…just…die… rot and bleed."

In the middle of the commotion, the large brute glanced down at his shackles and the cut rope that hanged to its side. He smirked faintly, tensed his muscles and shattered the iron that held him with a testimony of raw force. The people panicked and immediately backed away from the town´s square.

"DIVINE! Protect us!"

"He broke the shackles like nothing! That must be demonic power!"

"He is the youma!"

"OH GODS! He is loose!"

The _Nôdachi_ remained calm as it stepped forward and the crowd ran to cover. The armored gauntlet grabbed around the katana´s handle.

The brute snorted at the sight and slowly turned his face down to the crying boy. He frowned and in a deep voice spoke up.

"Boy…"

"Go to hell, filthy foreigner…" Kitsune muttered between the sobs and swiped with the dagger at him with teeth clenched. "…just leave me be!"

The brute gazed down at the hate that ignited in the boy´s eyes, glanced down to his side. His eyes widened. "…MOVE!" He reached down to grab Kitsune by the shoulder.

A pair of darkened, elongated fingers pierced across the boy´s left shoulder and through the brute's eye-sockets. The large man collapsed down over him, stains of blood hit Kitsune´s stunned face. In the broken line a horrified voice cried out.

"_Puta de Diablo!"_

Kitsune slowly turned his head around and gazed up at his sister´s limp body as it moved back up on its feet.

Only that its skin darkened, its muscles grew in tone, claws forced themselves out from her fingertips and the rags she bulked ominously outwards from her back. A grin decorated her face, unnatural and mad as it spoke with distorting voice.

"It was fun as long it lasted…"

The moment after, her cheeks split open and revealed a set of sharp fangs in a wide jaw. Her ears sharpened to a pointy shape and her eyes turned golden with slit pupils. She glanced down at Kitsune who sat still, shell-shocked. His mind incapable to comprehend what he saw.

The others on stage hurried away instantly with loud screams. All but the white lotus member who spared the scene one glance and with bored gaze returned to his book. The warrior moved forward.

She glared up at it and immediately grabbed Kitsune as a human shield with her claws pointed at his heart.

"Not another step, _Nôdachi_!" She shouted and pierced through his clothes. "Or the boy dies!"

The warrior stopped in its tracks, five meters from the youma. The archers on the rooftops fired off a set of arrows. The youma glanced back at them and the bulk on her back burst open. A pair of dark leathery wings flapped and swiped the arrows away. She flapped them once more and the gust sent the guards off their positions.

"Stay down…" The youma snickered. "Now…" She turned to the warrior. "You are not going to make a single move. I knew the moment your aura showed up, it was over. So don´t you dare move! Even if you wear that armor, my sixth sense can feel every twitch you do under it. One step and the boy die!"

"And what makes you think that I care for a human hostage?" The warrior replied, metallic echoes from the facemask distorted the voice.

"Don´t try to play the mindfuck-game with me!" The youma shouted back as it stabbed through Kitsune´s shoulder with its claws and kept them there. Blood dripped out over his back. "I know all about the rule that allow the humans to trust you at all… Your kin is never allowed to harm another human being. No matter the class, no matter the gender or age… no matter if they are _hinin_ or not, there are no exceptions! You are even trying to kill youma as fast as possible to keep the dead on a low number. So no bullshit! You don´t want this boy to die! That much is clear!"

The warrior didn´t responded and stopped like a statue on the spot.

"And what are you going to do now?" The warrior asked with collected calm.

"I will take the boy here… and leave. You aren´t going to do anything to stop me…"

"You say so?" The warrior mocked.

"I have all the advantages here! _Nôdachi_ scum! I am at full strength from the meal yesterday, strong enough to rip a horse apart and can deflect arrows and swords alike! And I will fly… free as a bat! My perception can feel your presence and if you try to follow me then I will injure as many people as I can! Try to fight a whole village full of my kin if you can! You can´t surprise me!" It glanced down to Kitsune who acted like a stuffed doll, pale from shock. "You want to know something funny?…" It whispered. "Until now... Your sister put up one hell of a fight. It was almost impossible to come out and play for these last three years…until she finally lost her strength to fight back..." It sighed heavily. "She loved you, And I can feel her cry, knowing that I will finally get a chance to eat you. You are okay with that, right?"

Kitsune said nothing as his captor turned back to the warrior.

"Where is the other one!?" the youma shouted.

"Other one?"

"I know your kin work in teams! But I see only you and that handler over there!" It nodded at the white man as he turned page in the book and hummed in amusement. "And he is no _Nôdachi_! So where is the other one?!"

The warrior shrugged. "Oh… you won´t see her coming… but make no mistake" The silver eyes focused on the youma coldly. "…This will end in _one_ strike."

The bells on the katana rang once.

A grey female-shaped shadow darted down from the rooftops without a sound. Silver flashed in its left hand. It dived for the youma who swiped back with one of its wings. The shadow dodged under it, twisted around and sliced upwards. The youma´s hand that stabbed through Kitsune´s shoulder came off. The youma shrieked as blood pumped out from its stump. The grey shadow grabbed its arm around the boy´s waist, pulled him away from the youma and quickly pulled out a small sphere in its hand.

"_Kuso!_" It cursed and aimed its remaining hand after the shadow. Its fingers elongated to spears.

The grey shadow immediately threw the sphere to the ground, it exploded in a cloud of grey smoke and the youma´s fingers pierced through it. Another flap with the wings and the cloud scattered.

The finger-spears pierced only air. The shadow and the boy were nowhere to be found. Only the warrior charged forward from the wall of smoke. The katana held raised with one hand and free from its holdings.

"Give me back my _Otôko!_" The youma roared with human voice as it retracted its fingers and attacked the warrior with hem. The _Nôdachi_ raised one arm up and the attack deflected on its wristguard. The warrior struck diagonally down at the youma.

The youma´s golden eyes stared up at the blade and its human voice trembled. "_Kitsune_…" Tears rolled down its dark cheeks as the words forced their way out as its face turned back to its human form. "…don´t leave me."

The katana sliced through the youma´s head and one of its wings hit the ground. The warrior turned on the spot with the momentum of the strike and stopped with the armored back turned at the youma. A sharp click as it sheathed the katana back on the two hooks it rested on with a dark stripe along its edge.

The youma stood seemingly unharmed. It blinked. Smiled.

The bells on the katana rang once.

The youma split apart in two bloody pieces over the ground as the handler closed the book and prepared to leave with a sigh.

"I told you…" The warrior said. "…You wouldn´t see her, even if I told you, you wouldn´t..." One last glance down on the corpse. "... She is a _ninja _for a reason."

* * *

Kitsune snapped out from the shock as the ground below him turned solid. A woman´s voice tried to call out to him.

"…nt to live?"

He blinked as the pain in his shoulder jerked his senses awake and he glanced up.

A tropical forest surrounded him. Not a trace of the city that he never left before. In front of him stood a woman in a silver-gray, skintight bodysuit with womanly figure. A grey face-mask concealed the lower half of her face and with a rune of thread as marking. She carried a smaller katana on a belt at her waist.

_Another Nôdachi?_

Her silver-blonde, hime-cut hair reached down to her waistline and a pair of warm pale blue eyes with only an outline of a pupil stared down at him with a frown. They shifted to silver as he stared at them.

"Do you want to live?" The woman asked, annoyed.

He frowned as his mind tried to gather the thoughts.

"What?" He uttered.

"You have been stabbed by a youma." She held up a dark hand devoid of fingers except for the clawed thumb. "I am sorry for not acting sooner, but the suppressant had to kick in first or you would have been killed by that youma. I had to cut its fingers of to loosen up the dead man´s grip. But without the proper tools, I can´t get them out without you dying from the blood loss. Right now, these fingers is infecting your body and will turn you to a youma. Do you realize that?"

Kitsune´s eyes opened wide as he stared down at the pained shoulder.

"I am going to die? Just like _onee-chan_?"

"I can´t kill you as long you remain human." The woman spoke to him firmly. "But just abandoning you to turn is equal to murder. And our kin is prohibited to kill another human being. But since you were attacked, the town you used to call home will no longer let you stay within its walls. You will turn before you can find another city. As things are now, you will die alone and prey on people after it happens until wither one of our kin comes to slay you. Do you want to live or not?"

He stared down at his hands and the dagger that rested in his firm grip. He thought back as the pain burned within his wounds.

_How long… how long did she lie to me?_

Kitsune trembled with gritted teeth.

"How long… do I have?"

"Without treatment? One week. The pain will grow worse for each day until your heart gives up and something else will replace you once your mind is gone. So do you want to live or not! Last time I ask!"

The memory of his sister and the years they spent together flashed by his eyes. He broke and the tears started as he gritted teeth.

"I…I want…"

"_You filthy hinin!"_

The voices of the past berated him ruthlessly.

"_Nobody will miss you…"_

_Why did this happen?_

"_Thief!"_

_She protected me._

"_Kill him!"_

_She took two arrows to the back for me._

"_Kitsune! Take him out of here! Run! Survive!"_

_She was still alive._

"_We still have each other, don´t we?"_

_For three years._

"_Burn the town to the ground! Take no prisoners!"_

_She fought back._

"_Hinin Stay away you piece of filth!"_

_For my sake?_

"_Bow down like the dog you are!"_

_They killed her._

"_The payment is in order…"_

_The youma killed her._

"_You can either yield or die, there is no third option."_

_You´re wrong._

He punched the ground and the voices stopped. He trembled heavily as he glanced back up to the woman with gritted teeth and pain in his gaze.

"I…want to _live_."

The woman nodded with a faint smile.

"It´s decided then."

"This…this can be cured…right?" He asked.

"No… If there is a cure then I know nothing about it."

"But you said-!"

"But my employers might now a way…" She said and pulled up a small box from a pouch on her body. She flipped the lid open and a dark pill rolled out in her palm. "This is a suppressant, used to suppress the yoki within our bodies, yoki that comes from the youma inserted in us. With it, I could save you earlier… And now, it can save you again."

"How?" Kitsune asked as he incredulously gazed down at the pill.

"One suppressant every day is enough to keep the curse of the youma at bay. It will keep you human until I can bring you to the ones that can help you. But the problem is, that you will have to stay around me until that happen. Are you okay with that?"

Kitsune sighed and asked with firm gaze. "How many have you tried to save this way?"

"Ten."

"How many survived?" Silence and the silver-eyed woman averted her eyes from him. "Shit."

"I can´t just abandon a human being in need… especially not one from one of the missions. If you can survive, I swear that I will do everything in my power to cure you. But only if you want to accept my help."

"Enough…" He said and snatched the pill from her hand. "So it´s either become a youma or die trying to not become one?" He tensed the grip around his dagger and trembled. "I won´t accept it… I swear…_Onee-chan_…" He chewed down on the pill and the intense bitterness of it forced his tears to pour out. He winced in pain from the taste and fought back the impulse to spit it back out.

"I swear…"

Kitsune turned his head down and fought back his tears. "I will kill them…" The image of the youma and the jeering crowd flashed through his mind. "…all of them…" He clenched his hands and punched the ground in anger. "…They stole everything from me…" His eyes glowered full of hate as he smirked in his tears. "...They won´t get away with this."

The young woman put his hand on his shoulder and asked with a warm glance.

His eyelids turned heavy and he collapsed down to the ground with a smile despite the pain and fatigue that hit him hard.

_I will survive…no matter what_!


End file.
